14 DAY TRIAL // The NSA isn’t just spying on terrorists, innocent citizens and world leaders, but also delves into industrial espionage, says Edward Snowden.
The NSA whistleblower made the statement for a German television network, but it’s not exactly fresh information, given some previous reports based on materials leaked by Snowden.
Previously, it’s been revealed that the NSA was spying on Brazilian oil company Petrobras and SWIFT, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, which would give the agency access to any banking and credit card transactions. While the NSA denied that its interest classified as industrial espionage, that’s exactly what it was accused of.
“If there’s information at Siemens that’s beneficial to US national interests – even if it doesn’t have anything to do with national security – then they’ll take that information nevertheless,” Snowden said, effectively bringing back attention to this particular topic in the whole NSA scandal.
During the same interview, Snowden said that he no longer had any type of documents or information on NSA activities and that all files had been turned over to select journalists.